SERVICES INTERRUPTED IN ... GOVT SYSTEM SHUTDOWN

MBABANE – There has been a complete interruption in government services that are linked to its electronic information system.

This means that services such as acquiring a passport or travel document, death or birth certificate or renewal of vehicle licence disc cannot be accessed for now. It remains unknown when this anomaly would be fixed. Also, those awaiting payment from government may have to wait longer as electronic payments cannot be processed.

This follows that Electronic Government (e-gov) services faced interruptions as the State’s central data centre encountered technical failure. There are also allegations that government owes the contractor tasked with carrying out the special repairing services of the system.

Internet

Electronic Government (e-gov) is defined as the government’s use of web-based internet applications or other information technologies, to enhance the access to and delivery of government information and services to the public, other agencies, and other government entities; or to bring about improvements in government operations that may include effectiveness, efficiency, service quality or transformation.

People who have been visiting government offices and departments requiring services that require e-government services have been turned back without assistance. The problem became glaring on Wednesday, after the Christmas holidays, as government resumed services.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Home Affairs announced to the public that it was unable to provide services, due to the systems failure. People were turned back since Home Affairs services heavily rely on e-gov. The Revenue offices were also affected as people were unable to make payments, while officials reported that the system was extremely slow.

The situation became worse by the day as the entire government system shut down and government employees who offer services linked to e-gov had long tea and lunch breaks, as they couldn’t do any work. Some of the civil servants confirmed that they had nothing to do as the system was down. “We come to work to do nothing,” they said.

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) Acting Principal Secretary, Macanjana Motsa, she notified the public about technical issues that were affecting e-government service centres, including the Ministry of Home Affairs that included issuing of identity documents (ID) cards, births, marriages and death certificates (BMDs), travel documents and border control.

The other government departments that were affected was the Treasury Department, under the Ministry of Finance as well as the  Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade under renewal of licences. The Ministry of Public Works and Transport was also reportedly affected.  Motsa assured the nation that their engineers were working on restoring the essential government services.

“The inconvenience caused is greatly regrettable. For further assistance or enquiries, please contact 2517 9537 /2404 5998,” she said. The Director of e-government, Bongani Ndlangamandla, explained in detail that the problem was the government mainframe, which is a system that is housed at the Royal Science and Technology Park (RSTP), under the Data Centre Department. The director elaborated that all the government services that were affected were linked to the mainframe.

A mainframe is the central data repository, or hub, in a corporation’s data processing centre, linked to users through less powerful devices such as workstations or terminals. The presence of a mainframe often implies a centralised form of computing, as opposed to a distributed form of computing. They also process data in real-time. “The mainframe was disturbed and our technicians have been working on it,” Ndlangamandla said.

RSTP Senior Communication Officers Senzo Malaza said the RSTP teams in the Data Centre had also been on the ground, even during the holidays, trying to rectify the problem. An investigation that was conducted by this publication unveiled that when government transferred the government computer services to the RSTP Data Centre, some of the duties were never delegated to the RSTP. One of the duties was linked to the services attached to the mainframe.

According to sources, the Ministry of ICT is directly responsible for services that are linked to the mainframe. The sources explained that the mainframe was bought around 2016, but had a lifespan of between 10 to 20 years. Adding, the suppliers of this giant equipment system, which is a multinational systems company are also licensed to constantly service the equipment from time to time. It was revealed that those service contracts were handled by the ministry of ICT, not RSTP.

Systems

The sources revealed that from time to time, whenever the systems encountered challenges, the supplier repaired it manually or remotely, depending on the extent of the problem at the time. It was said that this time, it happened at a time when there were delays in payments to the vendor.

It was alleged that the local engineers could not service all the components of the systems. This is because the teams were relatively new to the system and some of the components required the contractor’s attention, which in this case, was not forthcoming due to the outstanding payments.

“The ministry (ICT) is responsible for the service contracts. Right now, these people have not been paid or the contract has not been renewed with the supplier. Therefore, they cannot be contacted to attend to the issue at hand, whether in person or remotely,” the source further alleged. It was also gathered that government spends about E3 million, on average, just to renew the contract with the supplier of the mainframe.

Efforts to get the Ministry of ICT to comment on the issue of being behind with payments and why the RSTP was not given authority to have a direct link with the supplier, in terms of delegating the tasks of contracts, were futile. The Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of ICT Phesheya Dube, referred questions to the Under-Secretary, Motsa (currently acting PS), who also opted not to respond to the questions. In fact, Motsa stated that the ministry would issue an official statement, but when she was asked about the non-payment and non-renewal issue, she asked this publication to stick to what was in the statement.

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